


Timmy's First Tantrum

by I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)



Series: Gibbs' Family [27]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Age Play, Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, How Do I Tag, Invasion of Privacy, Making Up, Non-Sexual Age Play, POV Third Person Limited, Temper Tantrums, Tim-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 18:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress
Summary: What it says on the tin. Timmy finally gets comfortable with the family just long enough to snap and get vulnerable for a few minutes. But those few minutes change the whole way the family operates. For the better? It depends on who you ask.





	1. Chapter 1

McGee was having a crappy day. He didn't even know why, just that he woke up that morning feeling grouchy and hadn't stopped since. He honked his horn a second too long at the car in front of him when the light turned green. All he wanted to do was go to Gibbs' house, curl up on the couch, and take a nap before dinner and then go to bed. He needed a lot of rest, and he didn't think he was going to get any soon at his own place, anyway.

After what seemed like an age, he pulled into Gibbs' driveway, muttering under his breath and swearing at the Cadillac that kept in front of him nearly the entire ride here. He stepped out of the car, still swearing and gripping his keys like a set of brass knuckles, and Gibbs walked out of the house to greet him. "You better not be swearing," he warned.

Timmy clenched his jaw but stopped swearing. He passed Papa his car keys and walked into the house, shoulders hunched and a scowl on his face. He took off his coat and hung it in the closet, before going over to the couch and curling up in a corner of it. Tony and Katie were playing on the floor and Tony made his way over to the couch, and tugged on Timmy's sleeve. "Hey, Timmy, wanna play?"

"No," Timmy growled, reclaiming his arm and turning the opposite way on the couch.

Papa walked in the room and tapped Timmy on the shoulder. "Shoes off when you're on the couch."

Timmy sighed and muttered, "Whatever," under his breath, taking them off and putting them on the floor.

"And lose the attitude," Papa warned. "I expect better from you."

"Yes, sir," Timmy said, not bothering to turn around to face the room.

Papa said, "Leave him alone for now, Tony. I'll be making dinner."

Timmy closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but despite how tired he was after a long day of work, he couldn't find it. Resigned to being up, he rolled off the couch and onto the floor, scowl gone but frown still fixed on his face. He looked over at Tony and Katie, both working on a tower of some sort, and moved to sit between them. "Can I join? I can't sleep."

"Sure." Katie said. "You know, sometimes I can't sleep either and I get really mad. Dad will let you blow off steam if you need to."

Timmy shrugged and grabbed a block from the pile not used in the tower and stacked it on the top. "We going to do anything with the tower or just build it?"

"Jus' build it, for now," Tony said. "I wanna see how big it gets."

"That's boring," Timmy said. "Can't we do something with it after we're done building it?"

"I don't wanna tonight," Tony groaned. "Can't we just build somethin' to build it?"

Timmy sighed. "Sure. _You_  can. But if that's all you wanna do then I'll play with something else."

"You know where the toys are," Katie said with a shrug.

Timmy stood up and went over to one of the toy chests pushed up against the wall connected to the basement, and rifled through it, pulling out 2 toy trucks and heading back to the couch. He sat down what he felt was a suitable distance from the tower Tony and Katie were building and started to push the trucks around, setting up a high-speed chase like the ones in action movies. He ran the trucks around in circles for long enough that he was starting to feel just a little bit better, when Tony started tugging on his sleeve again. "Timmy, play with us!" the younger boy whined.

"I want to play with trucks, not blocks," Timmy said, tone short and leaving no room for protest.

Tony protested anyway. "C'mon, Timmy! Trucks are boring! Play with us!"

Timmy growled under his breath, his good mood thoroughly ruined. "No! I want. To play. With trucks!" Timmy ground out.

Katie moved closer. "Tony, let's just let Timmy play by himself, okay? He's tired, and doesn't want to talk to people right now."

Tony shook his head and grabbed Timmy's arm, starting to drag him across the floor. Timmy felt something inside him snap and he pulled his arm back into his chest. "Leave me alone!" he yelled. "Why is that so hard to understand?!"

Tony jumped back away from Timmy and started to cry. Katie looked beyond panicked, and stood up quickly, running to the kitchen. Timmy turned back to his trucks with a scowl. Two sets of footsteps entered the room, and Papa's voice cut in between Tony's wails, which slowly ebbed away to sobs, then hiccups. Timmy thought everything was over when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Papa looking at him seriously. "And what did you think you were doing?" he asked.

"Saying to be left alone," Timmy said, turning around again.

"No. Look at me when I'm talking to you," Papa said, pulling Timmy up and turning him around.

Timmy huffed and forcibly removed Papa's hand from his shoulder. He saw Tony tense up behind Papa and Katie look at him with interest. Papa narrowed his eyes, and Timmy knew that Papa was about to challenge him in an attempt to get him to back down. "Problem?"

There it was. But Timmy wasn't going to back down. Normally he would, in fact he had never pushed to this extent before. But he had gone through the worst day he had in months, and he was in no mood to be ordered around like the good little soldier everyone wanted him to be. "Yeah," Timmy said. "I wanna be left _alone_."

Silence. Tony looked to Katie in shock, and Katie mirrored his expression, but Timmy didn't lift his scowl a fraction, even when Papa narrowed his eyes further. "Fine. I think some time in the corner should suffice for being left alone. How does 10 minutes sound? 5 for yelling at Tony, 5 for your attitude the whole night."

Timmy's grip tightened on the truck in his hand and he growled. "No."

"Come again?" Papa asked, voice dangerously low.

"I. Said. No." Timmy snipped. "Problem?"

Someone inhaled sharply, but Timmy couldn't tell who. He was just focusing on not bursting into angry tears at any moment, as he was prone to do when he was this tired and grumpy.

Papa crossed his arms. "Half an hour, then. Sound better?"

Timmy looked down at the ground, tears threatening to fall, and noticed he still had the truck in his hand. Against his better judgement, which, to be honest, didn't have much of a say at the moment, he chucked it, aiming for Papa's head. "No!" he yelled.

The man ducked, and the truck clattered against the far wall. Papa reached down and took the other truck from Timmy's reach, walking over to where the truck Timmy had thrown landed, and put them both away, before walking back over to Timmy, grabbing his shoulder. "Right. My room, _now_."

Timmy tried to twist out of the man's grip, but it wasn't happening, and he was hauled to his feet, at which point he leaned back as far as he could away from Papa. Papa gave him a hard tug, and Timmy stumbled forward into his arms. "We are going to have a little talk," Papa said.

"No!" Timmy protested, trying to squirm out of Papa's grip. When that didn't work, he hit the man's chest repeatedly. "I hate you! I hate all of you!"

Papa grabbed his arms. "Hey! We don't throw things, and we _definitely_  don't hit," the man said sternly, leading him up the stairs despite his attempts to do anything violent.

Timmy was dragged into Papa's room, kicking and screaming, and he was pushed down until he was sitting on Papa's bed. Papa closed the door and sat down next to the boy, who had stopped screaming in favor of crossing his arms and scowling in silence again. "You gonna talk about what just happened there?" Papa asked.

No response. Timmy wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"I can wait here all night, Timmy," Papa warned.

Timmy dug his fingernails into his arms as hard as he could, inhaling quietly at the pain it brought.

Papa stopped his actions quickly, though. "Timothy McGee, you are not going to hurt yourself or anyone else tonight. You are going to sit here and think about what you've done, and when you're ready to talk we will have a discussion about your behavior."

Timmy snorted. "Like you actually care," he muttered, staring a hole in the floor.

"Of course I actually care," Papa said. "We wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't. Why would you think that?"

"No one ever actually does," Timmy scoffed. "You're all the same! I'm only here because you pity me, and the others find it amusing to watch when I flounder with something! I wouldn't be surprised if one day you just left me on the side of the road because you got bored with me! I hate all of you!"

Papa wouldn't stop staring at him, and Timmy was getting even more agitated. He turned his head away, his eyes burning. He blinked and felt tears fall down his face. There was a hand on his shoulder and he moved it off. "Timmy, look at me."

"No," Timmy said.

"Timothy McGee, look at me right now," Papa ordered.

Timmy turned his head and gave Papa a dirty look.

"Do you honestly believe we would leave you on the side of the road _ever_ , for _any reason_?"

Timmy considered it. He thought to all the times he had been dismissed from the bullpen with a "Why are you still here?" from someone or another, and all the hazing rituals he had been through, and realized that yes, he honestly wouldn't be surprised if they left him somewhere, even if it was just to be funny. He pulled his feet up onto the bed and looked away again, not able to look in Papa's face and nod.

"What have we done to make you feel like that?" Papa asked.

Timmy growled and whipped his head around. "What do you mean what have you done?! Don't bother trying to say I'm being irrational!"

Papa held up his hands. "Poor word choice. I meant what have we done _wrong_ so _we can fix it_?"

Timmy shrugged. "I dunno. It's just...I don't feel welcome here."

"Is there anything we can do to make you feel more welcome?" Papa asked.

"Respect my boundaries," Timmy shrugged. "If I don't wanna play with Tony and just wanna sleep, I don't think I should hafta play with Tony. And I don't like it when anyone tries to get into my desk, to see what I'm up to in my personal life. Things like that."

"Who's been going through your desk?" Papa asked, voice hard.

"I dunno, probably Tony? I've never caught him," Timmy sighed. "I can tell when my stuff's been moved, though, and it's moved a lot."

Papa shifted on the bed, putting his hand on Timmy's shoulder again. Timmy shrugged it off. "Stop doing that. I don't wanna be touched."

"All you needed to do was say so," Papa said neutrally.

Timmy dug his toes into the duvet on the bed. "I shoulda just never left Norfolk," he muttered, toes clenching and unclenching in the duvet's fabric. "It was a bad idea."

Papa cleared his throat. "I don't think so," he said. "I'm very glad you came to help us, and joined the team."

"You're the only one," Timmy sighed.

There was silence in the room for a minute after that, Timmy sitting still as he could while letting his tears fall, while Papa considered his next move. "Kiddo, have you been getting sleep lately?" Papa asked.

"Not a lot," Timmy admitted. "I just wanted to take a nap today."

Papa hummed. "Well, you're still in trouble for throwing a tantrum, don't think you aren't, but I think it might be the best thing for you at this point. In the future don't bottle everything up. Does going to bed straight after dinner sound like a fair punishment to you? If I put you in time-out for half an hour after dinner, it would nearly be time to get ready for bed anyway by the time you were out."

Timmy nodded. "I would just be trying to sleep in the corner anyway."

Papa stood up, offering a hand to Timmy. "Then come downstairs and apologize before dinner, I'll talk to Katie and Tony about privacy during it, and you can go to bed once you're done. Okay?"

Timmy silently took the hand and wiped any remaining tears off his face as he walked with Papa downstairs. On the ground floor, Katie was building another tower with Tony. When Tony saw Timmy, he shied away until Katie was in the boy's way. Katie turned and glowered at him. Timmy looked down at the ground and fiddled with his hands. "Sorry for yelling, Tony. I haven't been sleeping well, but that's no reason to get mad at you."

Tony sat up and nodded. "Thanks," he murmured.

"Dinner's ready," Papa said. "We all need to have a talk during it. Katie, could you help set the table?"

Everyone moved to the dining room and the kitchen. Tony and Timmy sat in awkward silence at the table as Katie and Papa set up the plates. Tony was tracing the grain on the table and Timmy was squirming in his seat. What was Timmy supposed to say? Tony had accepted his apology, but clearly hadn't forgiven him. He didn't know what he was supposed to do to fix that, if he was supposed to do anything at all. With Dad, he never had a chance of getting forgiveness, so he had no experience to help him get it from Tony.

Papa and Katie sat down, and Timmy looked up at his plate for the first time since it was put in front of him. Spaghetti and meatballs. He looked up at Papa nervously. "I'm...not very hungry tonight. Is it okay if I only have half?"

"I'd prefer you eat more," Papa said. "But if half is all you can manage, then eat half."

Timmy nodded and put small amounts of pasta on the fork as Katie and Tony dug in with gusto. Papa was more reserved, but he was still eating faster than Timmy was. He looked at Timmy and Timmy glanced back, before resuming his small bites of pasta. He didn't even try the meatballs. He was worried if he tried them he would just wind up getting sick, his stomach was in so many knots.

Papa sighed and put down his fork. "Right. I think before we go any farther, we need to talk."

Katie stopped eating when she heard Papa's tone, but Tony continued to shovel noodles in his mouth for a few seconds until he noticed everyone staring at him. "Abou' wha'?" he asked, mouth still half-full with food.

Papa looked over at Timmy in a way that told him to play along with whatever he was about to say. "Timmy says that he wants to move back to Norfolk."

Katie whipped her head around to Timmy in shock, and Tony choked on the noodles he was trying to swallow. Timmy squirmed in his seat. Papa said it like he planned to, and that wasn't 100% true, but given the opportunity, he _would_  move back. "Why?" Katie asked.

"He hasn't felt very welcome since he started helping out, and being on the team every day has just made everything worse. He wants to be somewhere he feels valued, and that, apparently, isn't here."

Timmy picked at his food for something to do. This was so accurate it hurt. Much as he wanted to feel welcomed, he just couldn't see how that was possible. He could feel his siblings' eyes on him and all he wanted to do was cry again. He forced himself to take another bite of spaghetti, despite the knot in his throat and tears obscuring his vision.

"Who here," said Papa, his voice turning hard again, in the way Timmy always feared, "Has been going through McGee's desk at work?"

Tony scratched the back of his neck. "I guess that's me, but I do it to him _and_ Kate, and Katie's never complained!" he defended.

"Who here has been hazing him?" Papa asked.

Katie flinched. "I guess I did go a little too far on that, I'll take it back a few notches. We both will, right, Tony?"

Tony frowned. "Why? What've we done wrong? Everyone goes through it!"

Timmy twitched. Papa growled. "So everyone feels like their team would abandon them at a crime scene for kicks, or leave them on the side of the road with no way home at some point? Is that what you're saying, Tony?!" Papa asked. "Because if so, then the entire agency needs an overhaul, and you better believe I'll be at the front of it!"

"I'm done with my food," Timmy said, waving slightly. "Can I please just go to bed?"

Papa stopped glaring at Tony and looked at Timmy's plate. "That's not quite half, kiddo. Can you have a few more bites?"

"I don't think so..." Timmy said, worrying his hands. "I feel kinda sick."

"I'll make you a deal. If you can have one meatball, you can go to bed. Okay?" Papa offered.

Timmy nodded and grabbed his fork to halve a meatball. But his stomach kept clenching at the thought of eating it, so he cut it into smaller pieces as he listened to the conversation.

"C'mon! Everyone goes through some hazing, that's just how the job goes! That's how the entire team works!" Tony protested. "It's just a little fun!"

Timmy blinked rapidly, staring at his plate and letting a few tears fall.

"It is not 'just a little fun' at this point, Tony! This is bullying, plain and simple! And I won't stand for it!" Papa said, slamming his hand on the table.

Timmy jumped and fell out of his chair, not even trying to get back up. He knew Papa wouldn't hurt him, but knowing something wasn't going to happen and feeling like it would were 2 entirely different things at the moment. He was faintly surprised he didn't hear muffled laughter from Tony, though.

Katie moved from her chair to crouch on the floor. "You okay, Timmy?"

Timmy shook his head.

"Feeling sick in your stomach?"

Nod.

"How about I take you upstairs, so you can change and try and get some sleep, hm?"

Timmy looked at her hesitantly, before shaking his head. "I'll do it m'self when 'm ready," he mumbled.

"Okay," Katie said uncertainly. "Let me know if you want me to help with anything, okay?"

Timmy nodded and she got back in her chair. He listened attentively to the conversation above him, which seemed to have moved into the adult realm. "You're not above this yourself if you're the one who made him feel like he had to hide under the table!" DiNozzo said.

"I know I'm not, but at least I own up to it, DiNozzo, and I was expecting the same behavior from you. Clearly, I should not have set my hopes so high."

DiNozzo yelled something that Timmy was sure he should have been processing, but all he heard was _loud loud loud_. He reached over to tug Kate's pant leg and she ducked under the table. "You want out?"

Timmy nodded and reached out to her desperately. She grabbed him by the elbows and pulled him out from under the table, and then helped him stand. "I'm taking Timmy upstairs for bed. You two can try and figure this out, I'll join you once he's asleep."

Kate led him out of the dining room and up the stairs. Timmy trained his eyes on the ground. "Their fighting is my fault, I shouldn't'a lost my temper," he mumbled.

"You needed to let them know something was wrong, and that was the only way you knew how," Kate said with a shrug. "Don't beat yourself up over it, it could have happened to anyone."

Timmy shook his head. "Still my fault."

"Not really," Kate said. "C'mon, let's get you to bed, you'll feel better in the morning."

Timmy nodded and walked into the guest room, taking off his belt and button-up shirt, leaving him in dress pants and a T-shirt. "I'll sleep in this," he mumbled. "All my other clothes are dirty."

"You sure? I'm sure Gibbs has something clean for you to sleep in, he almost always does..."

"I'll sleep in this," Timmy said more forcefully. "Please," he whispered.

"Okay. Okay," Kate said. "You can take either of the beds tonight, if Tony and I sleep at all it can be on the air mattress or the couch. We deserve it, after how we've been treating you."

Timmy sat down on the bed closest to the door and worried his hands some more. "Kate?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she prompted.

Timmy looked up at her. "Don't beat yourself up for hazing me the way I beat myself up for everything. I know you were joking, it's just hard to remember when I haven't been sleeping well. I'm not _really_  mad, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Kate said, smiling. "You're too innocent and sweet to really hate us yet. Give it a month or two, that'll change."

Timmy laughed.

Kate smiled and ruffled his hair. "Night, Timmy."

"Night-night," Timmy yawned, crawling under the blanket and sheets on the bed and curling in on himself. Despite feeling anxious and a little sick, he was out like a light within seconds.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning McGee sat up in bed, confused as to where he was. He blinked a few times before he realized he was at Gibbs'. He got out of bed and stretched, walking out of the room. He got down the stairs without making a sound and grabbed his coat and shoes, preparing to leave. He didn't want to sit through an awkward breakfast this morning, and he needed fresh clothes.

He walked out of the house and to his car, fishing in his pockets for the keys, and found them in the pocket Gibbs tended to leave them. He got in his car and drove away, feeling slightly guilty for doing so. But if anyone called him, he could just explain he needed to change before work. He checked the time on the clock in the car and saw it read 6:30 in the morning. Well, he hoped that his spare suit at work wasn't too gross, because he couldn't afford to drive all the way to his house to change before heading to the Yard and still be on time.

With nothing to do in the car, McGee turned on the radio and listened to the music from the station it had been left on. Honestly, he couldn't identify what it was, but it filled the silence. He tapped his fingers on the wheel in time to the beat, and before he knew it he was pulling into the parking lot at work.

He went down to the gym and changed into his spare suit, which thankfully wasn't dirty enough for anyone to suspect he hadn't gone home last night. He walked up to his desk and started up his computers, hoping that the search warrant for that petty officer's husband's house had come through already, so he didn't have to talk with anyone about what happened last night. Sadly, though, he had no such luck. He sighed and pulled up his e-mails, hoping against hope that he could find something to preoccupy himself until the rest of the team arrived. He read through everything, deleted his spam mail, and by that point the elevator dinged. McGee swallowed when he saw DiNozzo and Kate walk into the room. Apparently they must have had a short breakfast. DiNozzo was glaring at him, while Kate kept a small smile on her face, though it looked pained.

DiNozzo went over to his desk and started to work, but Kate came over to McGee's desk, first. "Hey, I wanted to apologize for the hazing, Tim. It got a little out of hand, and I guess I didn't realize that I needed to stop before it got worse. I'll make sure to be more careful in the future."

McGee nodded and smiled back at her, his slightly more genuine. "Thanks, I really appreciate that."

Kate's smile relaxed into a more natural state and she glanced over at their SFA. "Stay away from Tony for a while, we were getting chewed out by Gibbs the entire way here. He was pretty upset you left before anyone else was up."

"I wasn't sure I would make it through breakfast, to be honest," McGee whispered. "I'm not used to Gibbs being nice to me."

Kate laughed. "It is a little weird. Any news about the warrant?"

"None," McGee sighed. "I figured I could call them again once Gibbs was here, in case they wanted to yell at someone higher up the food chain."

"Might want to do that now," Kate advised. "It'll show you came into work early to work, rather than to dodge a conversation you don't want to have."

"Good point, thanks."

Kate nodded. "No problem. Just don't expect me to be this nice to you all the time. I have to have some sort of upper hand occasionally."

McGee chuckled and picked up his phone, dialing the judge's office so he could check on the warrant. After a minute, he could feel eyes on him, and glanced over to DiNozzo, who actually seemed focused on his work for once. He turned around and who should be leaning against the bullpen's walls but Gibbs. He nearly jumped out of his skin and stuttered when the judge's secretary came onto the line to talk to him.

Gibbs moved on from his staring and McGee tried to focus on work as much as he could with Gibbs glancing over at him every 10 seconds. When he was informed that he wouldn't get the warrant for a minimum of an hour, he hung up his phone and looked over at Gibbs. "I'm not made of glass, you know," he said, no emotion slipping into his voice. "I can handle myself."

"No idea where you got the idea you couldn't," Gibbs said. "Warrant?"

"Another hour, at least," McGee sighed. "Judge is in a meeting with someone, apparently they can't wait."

Gibbs grunted. "Record?"

"Nothing."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs yelled.

Tony sat up from where he was balancing a pencil on his nose. "Yeah, boss?"

"You apologize for your behavior yet?"

Tony scowled. "Nothing to apologize for," he responded.

"I wouldn't say so," McGee said. At the 3 pairs of eyes on him, he said, "Well, I wouldn't. That's just me."

"Pushing a line, _Probie_ ," Tony growled.

McGee shrugged. "Boss, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll go see if Abby needs any help. I can tell I'm not going to be of any use up here."

Before he could get a response, he left. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and decided he wasn't going to acknowledge Tony or DiNozzo until he apologized, and whenever he could, not be in the same room as the man. He wasn't in the mood for getting glared at.

He was assaulted with music the second the elevator doors opened to Abby's floor, and McGee smiled, walking in to find Abby dancing to the music. She turned around and smiled when she saw him. "Hey, Tim! How's it going?"

"I'm okay. I'm trying to dodge Tony, though," McGee said, pulling up a chair. "Anything I can help you with down here?"

"Not really, but I can make it look like we're busy so no one bothers us," Abby said with a shrug. "I do it all the time."

McGee grinned. "But surely not when Gibbs is around?"

Abby widened her eyes comically and grinned, shaking her head. "No, 'course not!"

"Sure, Abs," McGee said, grinning. "Sure."

Abby led him into her office and set him up at her computer. "Just debug anything that's bugged, and once that's done you can do whatever."

"Sounds easy enough," McGee said, starting to type.

"Yeah, well, I haven't gone through it in a week, so things are bound to build up," Abby said. "But it'll keep you occupied for a bit."

McGee nodded absently, already focusing on the job in front of him. He was almost working on autopilot, fingers moving without him realizing what he was doing. That offered him plenty of time to think about what happened the night before. He wasn't surprised that Tony had tried to defend what he was doing, it more surprised him that Kate had actually apologized for her behavior. Neither of them seemed like the type to admit they were wrong. Still, it would have been nice for DiNozzo to apologize for ostracizing him to that degree when he had done nothing but join the team. After all, it wasn't like he was going after the man's job, he was perfectly fine being a junior agent, since he still had much to learn.

"You say something, Tim?" Abby asked, walking up behind him.

"I don't think so, though I could have been thinking out loud," McGee said, making a few final keystrokes on the computer and then leaning back. "Done. Need me to do anything else?"

Abby shook her head, pigtails swinging around. "Gibbs was asking after you. I think your warrant came through."

"Must have to go search the husband's house then," McGee said, standing up. "Thanks for letting me hide out here."

"Come back down when you're back if you need to, I enjoy the company," Abby said, grinning.

McGee nodded. "I will."

Outside the lab, Gibbs was waiting, checking his watch. "Took you long enough," he said. "Need you to check out the husband's house with DiNozzo."

"With...with T-Tony?" McGee stuttered. "I don't think he'd be very happy to see me, boss."

"Well, I either send you two out to work on it in the field, or I lock you in a room together until you make nice. Which will it be?" Gibbs asked.

"S-s-search is fine, th-thanks," McGee stammered.

Gibbs pushed McGee in the general direction of the elevator, and McGee got in, heading up to the garage with a gulp. He did _not_  want to talk to DiNozzo, especially if he was going to be angry about the night before. But all too quickly, he was walking into the garage, getting into one of the NCIS vans with the man, and strapping in just as DiNozzo gunned the gas out of there. "Tony!" McGee yelped. He had never understood how people could just get little from certain situations, since it came so hard to him at first, but he could understand what they meant now. He felt like they were about to die. "Tony, please slow down!"

"No," DiNozzo growled.

"Tony, please," McGee said, gripping onto the side door of the van until his knuckles were white.

"Why? Are you going to tattle on me again if you don't get your way?"

"Tony, I am legitimately worried we are going to crash and die. Slow down, please!" McGee pleaded.

DiNozzo growled again and slammed on the brakes, slowing the van to a crawl, causing quite a few honks behind them on the street. McGee felt the wind get taken out of him as he was slammed into the seat belt. "Happy?" the SFA snapped, turning to McGee.

McGee swallowed and, afraid of what might happen otherwise, nodded.

"You made me get chewed out for an hour this morning, and two last night. Three whole hours, McGee, of nothing but Gibbs yelling at me and my behavior! Can you imagine?" Tony yelled. "And for what?"

"For invading my privacy, making me believe that I'm worthless, and that my boundaries don't matter?" McGee countered breathlessly. "And that's the short list."

"I don't do that!" Tony protested.

"I don't think you get to decide that, Tony, because nothing just magically disappeared the second you said you didn't do anything wrong," McGee said, squirming in his seat. He wanted to be away from here, and he wanted to be small. He was desperate. "...I'm not feeling very good..."

"You better not puke in this thing," the other man growled.

"N-not like that," McGee said, forcing Timmy to the side as long as he could. "I...I need to talk to...Gibbs."

DiNozzo looked over and pulled the van to the curb. "Crap. Tim, I've just been joking. It did go too far, and I'm mad that I couldn't tell until you told me. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've just been in a bad mood with all of this, like the way you were yesterday. Gibbs is chewing me out, Kate refuses to speak to me, everything! I'm sorry. We're even, now, okay?"

Timmy stared out the window, not responding, not trusting his voice.

"Too little, too late, huh? Do we need to go back? Kate can come with me to the house, it's not a big deal if the answer is yes."

Timmy nodded, and DiNozzo headed back to the NCIS building, leading Timmy out of the van. Papa was talking to Abby about something, and turned to them, a reprimand on his lips until he saw Timmy. "All right, this clearly needs a little more work than I thought. Come with me, Timmy."

"Just a sec," Timmy said, before wrapping his arms around Tony and whispering, "I'm sorry too. We're even."

Papa had to drag Timmy to the elevator, and once they were inside, he froze the cabin. "You okay, kiddo?"

Timmy shifted on his feet, trying to figure out how to say what happened without getting DiNozzo in trouble. "Tony was drivin' fast, and I just...I dunno," Timmy said. "We're okay, though. He apologized an' I apologized and we're okay. I just...just..."

"You're probably still a little shaken," Papa finished for him. "I'll have Kate go with DiNozzo to get the evidence, and you can be on desk duty for a while. Feel free to play any games you have on your computer, at least until you know you can be big enough to work again."

Timmy nodded and Gibbs turned the elevator back on again.

The rest of the day was more or less a blur to Timmy. He wasn't able to age up again like he normally was. He could get to maybe a teenager age, but then he'd slip back down again. It worried him, but he was sure it worried Papa more. He sat at his desk and played different games the whole day, and when it was time to go home, Papa walked over to him. "Still not feeling good?" he asked.

Timmy shook his head.

"I'll take you to my house tonight, then," Papa said. "You didn't get much of a relaxing night last night anyway."

Timmy locked his computers for the night and followed Papa to the elevator. Papa glanced at him. "Everything okay with you and Tony?"

"Mm-hm," Timmy hummed.

"I doubt he'll respect your privacy for long, but he shouldn't go that overboard again," Papa said. "If he does, just let me know."

Timmy nodded.

"And Timmy."

"Yeah?" Timmy asked, turning to Papa.

"Next time you get the bright idea to have a tantrum, you'll have a lot more than an angry Tony to worry about."

Timmy swallowed. "Yes, sir."


End file.
